Face to face retail sales transactions take place at the point of sale or what is commonly referred to as the checkout line or counter. It is a this location that the customer pays for the goods purchased typically by either cash, check, charge or debit card.
To effectuate the sale, many retailers presently use electronic devices to facilitate and provide a record of transactions. Such a point of sale system may include a scanner for reading coded product price, a terminal for manual entry of transaction information and storage of currency, and a printer which may be used to produce a documentary record or journal for the business and a printed receipt for the customer. Check processing devices are also available to facilitate the transaction when a check is used for payment. Such check processing devices include a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition ("MICR") reader for reading the magnetic ink printed coded account information commonly found on the front of checks.
As part of the check out procedure, the sales price of each item purchased is entered into the point of sale terminal. Each item price and a total is printed by the point of sale printer on a customer receipt and may also be printed on a separate journal by the same point of sale printer. When paying by check, the customer then provides a check for the amount due to the cashier. The cashier inserts the check into the check processing device which reads the MICR information for further processing such as confirming sufficient fund availability or checking the information against a bad account list. A receipt is then provided from the printer to the customer.
Point of sale systems are typically located at the checkout counter where space is limited. Accordingly, a full functioned point of sale system with a reduced "footprint" is desired. Moreover, low cost reliable multifunctional parts should be utilized.